Synaxarion of our Venerable Father Leontios of Achaia

Synaxarion

By Saint Nikephoros of Chios

On the 11th of December, we commemorate our Venerable Father Leontios of Achaia.
 

Verses

Do not be amazed at the life of Leontios,
For though in the flesh, he lived the life of angels.
On the eleventh, the heart of Leontios passed in peace to the heavens.

This fresh shoot of the Lord’s vine had as his homeland a certain city of the Peloponnese called Monemvasia, and his parents were eminent and God-loving people. His father, named Andrew, had been entrusted with the governance of all the Peloponnese by the pious Emperor Andronikos, who then held the scepter of the Roman Empire. Having thus sprouted from such a noble and deeply rooted lineage, and possessing such beginnings, he naturally bore a corresponding ascent as fruit, and he was immediately given over to the study of sacred letters. Perceiving their sweetness, he longed to grasp all knowledge and to reach its highest summit. Therefore, through keenness of mind and purity of life, and over a long period of time, he became well-versed in his studies and in many languages.

Saint Daniel the Stylite in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

Venerable Daniel lived during the reign of the great Emperor Leo the Thracian, the Butcher. He came from Mesopotamia, in the region of Samosata, from a village called Maroutha; his parents were named Elias and Martha. After his fifth year of age, his parents placed him in a monastery, where he excelled in the ascetic life. When he had already advanced in asceticism, he went to Saint Symeon the Stylite and was blessed by him. By divine revelation, he came to the regions of Thrace, near Byzantium, in the area of Anaplus. There he enclosed himself in a certain pagan temple and endured many demonic temptations. Afterwards he ascended a column, demonstrating great asceticism and patience, in heat and in cold, exposed to the assaults of the winds. He performed many miracles, to such an extent that the fame of his virtue reached Emperor Leo, as well as his successor Zeno and the usurper Basiliscus. They visited and venerated the Saint, and he foretold to them the things that were about to happen, thus helping the holy Church, which was being attacked by heretics. He lived his life in a holy and blameless way and departed to the Lord.

Prologue in Sermons: December 11

 

When Judging Others, the Court Must Be Impartial

December 11
 
(A Sermon From the Life of Epiphanios, that one should rightly judge in court and not be partial in court to either the rich or the poor.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Some people who are appointed judges over others make mistakes in the following case. For example, a rich and a poor person come to court. The former is right, and the latter is wrong, which clearly means that the former should be considered right, and not the second. Meanwhile, another simple-minded judge thinks: “How then shall I judge the poor? For it is written: ‘You shall justify the widow, judge for the fatherless, give to the poor’” (3 Esdras 2:20). And, based on this reasoning, he justifies the poor man who is wrong, but condemns the rich man who is right, and thinks that he has done a good deed. No, brethren, this is not so. If you are a judge, do not judge as man judges, but as the Lord judges; and with the Lord there is no injustice, nor respect of person (2 Chronicles 19:7). Judge impartially, otherwise no good will come from your judgment.

Sermon 4 on the Fast of Advent (St. Leo the Great)

By St. Leo the Great

(Sermon 15: On the Fast of The Tenth Month, IV)

CHAPTER I - The threefold remedy of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving against the temptations of the devil and the wounds of sin.

We confidently exhort you, beloved, to works of piety, because experience has taught us that you willingly embrace what we urge. For you know, and by God’s instruction you understand, that the observance of the divine commandments will bring you profit toward eternal joy. Yet in fulfilling them, human frailty often grows weary, and in many ways, through the slippery weakness of our nature, it falls. Therefore the merciful and compassionate Lord has given us remedies and aids by which we may obtain pardon.

For who could escape so many enticements of the world, so many snares of the devil, and finally so many dangers arising from his own instability, unless the mercy of the eternal King preferred to restore us rather than to lose us? Even those who have already been redeemed, already reborn, and made sons of light, so long as they are detained in this world — which lies entirely in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19) — and so long as corruptible and temporal things entice the weakness of the flesh, cannot pass these days without temptation. Nor does anyone easily attain such a bloodless victory that amid many enemies and frequent conflicts he is free not only from death but also from wounds.

Holy Martyrs Menas the Kallikelados, Hermogenes and Eugraphos in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

According to Saint Joseph the Hymnographer, the Saints we celebrate today are “multi-luminous stars” for the Church. Stars that illumine all creation, first with the light of their wondrous struggles, and then with the radiance of their miracles:

“As multi-luminous stars…you illumine all creation, victorious martyrs, with the light of your contests and the radiance of your miracles.”

What raised these Saints to such heights, according to our Church, and enabled them to extinguish the fire of atheism, was the flame of their God-inspired zeal:

“Burning with divine zeal, they extinguished the fire of atheism.”